An innovator is someone who possesses the knowledge and skills to turn an idea into a successful product or service. They are good at spotting opportunities for improvement and capitalize on them. Innovators think out of the box and find creative solutions for everyday problems.
All top innovators share some key traits that set them apart from others. Below are 6 traits of successful innovators that you can learn and develop to become an innovator.
1) Risk-taker
An innovator is aware of the fact that taking calculated risks is mandatory to make great discoveries. They are not only risk-takers themselves, but they also encourage others to be curious and courageous.
Great innovators believe in the risk-taking culture. It enables employees to be curious and learn from failure and see it as an opportunity to grow.
2) Resilient and passionate
The innovator’s journey is full of ups and downs. It takes some time before they go on to innovate a successful product/service. It is never really a straight path but is full of hurdles and difficulties. As they are familiar with these problems, they tackle these by staying resilient and adamant.
They make steady and slow progress towards betterment as they know these small steps are key towards great innovation. They possess the passion and ability to never give up despite the circumstances.
One of the top innovators, Thomas Edison reportedly tried 1000 experiments before a breakthrough in making a light bulb. Innovators never fail, they always use experiments to learn and improve instead of giving up.
Resilience is not only about never giving up, but over time it becomes a part of personality. It also helps them be emotionally intelligent that is useful for overcoming problems along the way.
Lack of resilience and passion are key qualities to yield great results and be a successful innovator.
3) Motivated and Hardworking
Not only do the innovators want to make the world better, but they also strive for betterment themselves. They make a difference by adopting great changes that help them improve. They are always hungry for improvement and motivated to do more.
Their elite hardworking mentality makes them more likely to succeed. They keep improving themselves with experimenting, learning and collaborating. They are in constant touch with people to get their feedback and incorporate them into their work.
4) Leadership qualities
Although innovation seems like a solitary journey, it is not possible without a great team surrounding you. They are surrounded by a motivated team that is ready to help. Leadership qualities help the employees get fired up and be as excited for the innovation as the innovator itself.
Great innovators know that without teamwork, discovering a new thing is a daunting task. It is a great team under a leader that helps turn an idea into a reality. Like the idea of Walt Disney starting Mickey mouse. His idea was adopted, polished by the team. And that is why it continues to live to this day.
5) Driven by data.
Top innovators are always guided by data and reality rather than opinions, criticism, and assumptions. They do everything with calculations and research. They take every step with great caution and seek facts using measurement.
They constantly require feedback on their work to ensure they are on the right path and to ensure their progress has a mass appeal. They use real-life truth, statistics, and surveys to get optimum results rather than relying on superstitions and feelings.
6) Constant experimentations
Innovative people keep themselves busy with research and experiments to make progress. While most use the tried and tested techniques for experiments, some innovators do something different out of curiosity.
They know that it is risky to experiment with a product that has never been on the market. The only way of knowing a definite answer is experimenting and testing out the innovation. Then it will be only a matter of time before one of their experiments yields top results and turns out to be a gold mine.
Final thoughts
In the end, it comes down to what worked and what did not? Successful innovators always reflect to their work and adapt accordingly. Reflection is by far the most important trait for an innovator to have to achieve excellent results. With reflection, the journey of deep learning starts and slowly molds the person into a creative innovator.